A Nephew To Dote On
~~O~~
~~O~~
It was a fact that the extended Iida family was a tad on the large size.
This was due to most Iidas having numerous brothers and sisters, their parents having a multitude of brothers and sisters, their grandparents having a massive number of brothers and sisters, and so on and so on. Add to the descendants of these siblings, in-laws and their relatives and in-laws.* This led to the Iida family definition of a 'tad large' being on the scale of a full grown Mt. Lady.
This also meant that the Ingenium branch was positively tiny in comparison as it was made up of Tenya, Tensei and their parents.
It was also a fact that Iidas made a point of keeping in contact with each other; thus Tenya had grown up being doted on and teased by the small legion of his parents' siblings, and watched with great interest as such as said legion did the same to his horde of cousins.
Thus it was natural that little Tenya started bugging Tensei about the possibility of him producing offspring. First by politely asking for the details of how Tensei might obtain such offspring.** Later when he was older and had more information on the subject, by regularly ambushing Tensei about his romantic partners which led to a number of awkward conversations.***
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*To put it bluntly, there were enough Iidas to make Twice run for the hills.
**Tensei: "Mom? Dad? Help!"
***Such as "Dammit, Tenya! She and I both know how to use a condom," and "He's a cis-man, Tenya. I'm a cis-man. I don't care what fan fiction says. Neither of us are getting pregnant! ".+
+Unfortunately for Tensei, this went on considerably longer as Tenya felt the need to suggest various Quirks that could help with this.
~~O~~
Tenya had matured since those early days. His reason for wanting nieces and nephews running around had changed. He no longer had any issues with any nieces and nephews not being biologically related to him. He also kept his brother's feelings in mind, meaning that he took into account that his brother would prefer having a partner to raise children with* and that Tenya prefered older men and women.**
Unfortunately, the chaos of schooling and full-time residency at the dorms meant Tenya had been unable to scope out potential romantic partners who either had children already or were willing to have some.
Then a series of events changed that.
.
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*This had led to the Iida family agency being flooded with single parents and screaming toddlers.***
**Tensei: "He went to school with Grandma, so no, I am not interested."
***It had taken weeks to remove the crayon murals from the walls, dispose of various slobbery pacifiers and reunite frantic parents with their little ones' favourite toys. And years later, the employees were still finding surfaces covered with mysterious sticky gunk.
~~O~~
It started with Todoroki Shouto. Over time, the ice and fire user had become intrigued by the Iida family* and often he showed up at Iida's dorm room to ask questions.
This time, he was flipping through one of the many photo albums and settled on a photo of a grinning Tensei in costume sitting with his helmet and a bald baby in his lap. Said baby was doing his utmost best to consume the helmet.
"Is that your nephew?" he asked pointing at the infant, trying and failing to picture his father willingly let any child of his desecrate his costume.
"No, that's me," Iida explained.
"Hmmm . . ." Shouto commented, surprised.** "Your brother looks almost old enough to be your father."
Tenya mulled this over. "Yes, I was a late surprise to our parents. People used to mistake him for my father all the time. Though I suppose that Tensei is technically old enough to have a sixteen year old child." As he said the last sentence, his eyes became the blue of the distant horizon.
This thought became a seed buried in fertile earth, just waiting for the right time to grow.
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*A family with Heroic parents that somehow managed to raise Heroic children that did not want to alternately freeze or fry them seemed like quite a novelty to him.
**Given this was Todoroki Shouto, he looked so surprised that he looped around to not looking surprised at all.
~~O~~
The seed was watered when Tenya found out that Tensei was taking a sabbatical from the family agency to help Aizawa teach Hero Studies at Yuuei. Thus, it meant Tensei would be in the vicinity of many fifteen and sixteen year olds that were technically young enough to be his children.
"You don't mind?" Todoroki asked when he voiced the idea. "That means your niece or nephew would be your age. Maybe older."
"Not especially." Proper family hierarchy, in his opinion, dictated that uncles were supposed to spoil, annoy and care for any potential nieces or nephews regardless of their age.*
While Tenya considered this, the seed began to grow.
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*Besides when trying to set up Tensei with Grandma's friend—a man with a daughter thrice Tenya's age. If he had been willing to spoil her, why would have an age gap of a few months make a difference?.
~~O~~
If Todoroki's question planted the seed and Tensei's new job the water, the sight of Izuku amiably chatting with Tensei during class was fertilizer on steroids. While a puzzled Todoroki watched, a slew of ideas poured out of Tenya.
"Midoriya's never mentioned a father figure," he observed, glasses glinting dangerously.*
"This likely means his mother is a widow."**
"Midoriya Inko is an older woman—"***
"—and Tensei prefers older partners."+
Of Tenya's classmates that could be inducted into his family, he could think of few that he would like more in his family than Midoriya.
Tenya could tell him embarrassing stories about his father,++ and Izuku could use an uncle to fuss over him since he was always getting hurt and throwing himself into danger,
Also, Iida Izuku has a nice ring to it.+++
BOOM!
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*Todoroki: "Have you asked?"
**Todoroki: "Again, have you asked?"
***Todoroki: "But is she a single older woman?"
+Todoroki: "Iida-kun, can you hear me? Are you okay?""
++Like the time where he put his white and darks in the same laundry cycle.
+++Todoroki: "Iida? . . . Bakugou, could you .. . ?"
~~O~~
Tensei has been accused of being a Quirk nerd a time or two. So much so that his parents colluded to install a parental lock on his work computer that blocked anything with the word Quirk in the page title. So much so that back in his Ingenium day, he had been charged with 'cruel and usual punishment' after apprehending some Villains then lecturing them for hours on how poorly he had been using his Quirk.
This might be a tiny winey bit of the reason that Tensei got distracted from his lesson plan.
". . . the classifications of Quirks are too simplistic," said Midoriya Izuku, the current source of his distraction. "I mean you've got supposed Emitter Quirks like Uraraka and Kacchan but it's nowhere near that simple. They've got clear Mutation aspects to theirs. Uraraka has her finger pads and Kacchan should have hearing damage or be always breaking bones, never mind the amount of sweat he can produce. There has to be an internal Mutation there."
He really should have got back to his lesson. He really, really, really should. Instead he said, "Agreed. I mean your Quirk clearly has Enhancement and Emitter traits. Strength plus that green static electricity you produce when you use it. Maybe some ongoing Mutation in your bones as you seem to be able to use more strength now without . . ."
BOOM!
Any distraction evaporated when he heard the explosion and his little brother's cry. Where once, Tensei would have been able to use Engine to zip to the other side of the room in a second, instead he had to roll his chair. It meant that by the time when he reached Tenya, finding his little brother dazed on the ground with Bakugou and his still smoking fingers standing over him, he was in a less than gracious mood.
"What was that about?" he growled at Bakugou.
"Blame Half-and-Half," the blond replied. "Four Eyes wasn't responding and he asked for help."
A glance revealing a chagrined Todoroki dulled the anger and he reminded himself of his own school days. His control of his arm engines had still been in the works and Present Mic had loved startling him, causing him to smash into various things. In short: teenagers.
He rubbed his temples. "Next time help by talking to me or . . ." He looked over at the teacher's desk; underneath it lay the sleeping bag containing Shouta. His other former classmate hadn't even stirred. ". . . me. Or take him to Recovery Girl . . . and on that note, Midoriya, could you take Tenya to—"
"No!" Tenya said, springing to his feet so fast that he nearly fell over. "Todoroki-kun should take me. He was hurt too."
"But if that's the case then, maybe he should take both of you."
Tenya threw a desperate look at Todoroki who said, "Yes. I am. Very. Mildly hurt." Everything about him was so stilted that one would need a ten foot ladder to look him in the eye. "But not so much that I cannot take him to Recovery Girl. Meanwhile, Midoriya and you should watch Bakugou in case he does . . . something."
With that he grabbed Tenya's arm and shuffled him out of the room, Bakugou's cry of "What the hell, Icy-Hot?!" following them.
"You really don't have to worry about your brother, Iida-sensei," Midoriya said, soothing. "I have a lot of personal experience with Kacchan's explosions." He winced. "That was a pretty mild one. Not the right pitch or intensity to do any real hearing or physical damage."
Picking up on what Midoriya said, Tensei tore his eyes away from his brother's retreating back and focused on the green-haired boy. "But you don't have any equipment to do a reading. How'd you know?"
Midoriya launched into a detailed explanation. Once he finished and Tensei was satisfied that Bakugou was not trying to harm Tensei and the bulk of the class was fast asleep, another thing that Midoriya had said came to mind . . .
Narrowing his eyes in Bakugou's direction, Tensei asked Midoriya, "What do you mean by you 'have a lot of personal experience' with Bakugou's explosions?"
~~O~~
"This seems overly complicated," Shouto observed. "Why don't you first find out if Midoriya's mother is single? Then, if she is, simply introduce your brother to her? They might like each other without any more interference."
Iida made a harsh chopping motion. "I've done that before.* It was a disaster. So we have to be subtle about things."
Shouto considered what to say. He didn't have the greatest experience with social situations, but he strongly suspected this one was far from typical. In truth, he wasn't sure how exactly he had gotten pulled into this mess. He had made a straightforward comment on one of Iida's baby pictures and now he's found himself in a runaway car. "If I tell you this is a bad idea, will you listen?"
"Here's what we're going to do. The best way to get Tensei and Inko married is for Tensei to first bond with Midoriya," Iida stated without so much as batting an eye at Todoroki's comment.
Shouto sighed. He would stay in the car for now. With any luck he will be able to pull Iida out before the crash.
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*The aforementioned invasion of single parents plus toddlers at the Iida Agency. Tenya had tried to introduce Tensei to the various parents but he had been strangely uninterested.
~~O~~
"Iida-sensei?" Izuku said as he spotted the familiar wheelchair and dark blue hair outside the restaurant.
"Hey Midoriya. Did Tensei invite you for breakfast as well?" Tensei asked.
"Yes." This was a pleasant surprise. The elder Iida's lecture on mixing Enhancement Quirks with mountain climbing gear has been giving him ideas for Full Cowl. Maybe he could pass them by the teacher? "Iida-sensei, do you mind if I—?"
"Help. Help. My. Purse," called a woman. An elderly woman? It was hard to tell as she was dressed head to toe in daisies with a large one on a huge floppy hat that blocked her face. Add to that, her voice, high pitched though it was, was as flat as a plank of wood and about as expressive.
Nearby a figure dressed like the Phantom of the Opera, complete with long cloak streaming down his back, sprinted away. The sprinting could be going better as the cloak was so long in fact that it nearly tripped him multiple times before he successfully reached an open manhole and jumped in.
Sparks of green lightning enveloped Izuku as he prepared to follow, when Tensei grabbed him by the shoulder. "No. Don't," he said. "The sewer system around here is a complete maze."
"But—"
"We're not always the right person for every circumstance," Tensei told him gently. "My rig alone says that." He ruefully indicated his wheelchair. "I knew the Hero Killer was using blades when I was searching for him. I had friends, sidekicks, even family with Quirks that would have made them far better choices to track him down. But I was arrogant. Assumed that I was fast enough . . . Assumed I didn't need back up. I was wrong."
It was hardly the first time Izuku has heard the argument. His success when it came to rescuing Kacchan had ended up with multiple terrified adults raking him and his friends up one side and down the other. Truth be told, he mainly had ignored it, but to hear it from Tensei of all people who had directly felt the consequences . . .
"I suppose it would be rude to stand up Iida-kun," he admitted. "But what about the thief?"
~~O~~
Tenya raced through the sewers.
It was only a matter of time. Midoriya was likely close behind him and such heroic actions on his part would definitely impress Tensei.
~~O~~
"He won't be going anywhere fast. When I said maze, I meant an extremely difficult one. Without help, the thief will probably be stuck down there for days," Tensei explained. "I'll call the Eel to go after him. She's got special senses that allow her to navigate down there. In the meantime, how about we get the victim's statement? . . . Er, where did she go?"
There wasn't a daisy in sight. In fact, the only person was a red and white haired young man staring owlishly at them across the street.
"Todoroki!" Tensei called, waving his student over.
"Iida-sensei . . . Midoriya, what are you still doing here?"
Tensei frowned. That was an odd phrasing, but shook it off immediately. "We're meeting Tenya for breakfast. Would you like to join us?" From watching his student in class, Tensei was strongly reminded of Tenya. Awkward yes, but someone who genuinely liked people and just needed others to be patient so that they would realise just how awesome he was.
"Nonsense, I'll cover you too. You're one of my little brother's friends."
"I can afford to pay for my— I am one of Iida-kun's . . . friends ?"
"Of course," Midoriya said, smiling brightly at Todoroki. "And we all would love you to join us."
The way the boy's expression turned inward as if discovering an earth-shattering fact was heart-breaking. But the soft smile that followed made the detour worth it. Kid definitely had to come now, Tensei decided, and shepherded him inside.
~~O~~
Iida Tenya had had better days. His plan was a complete disaster, he got lost in the sewer, and while down there, he was chased around by the Eel, and worst of all, he received a very annoyed series of texts from Tensei, somewhat angry that he had stood him up but even angrier that he had stood up Midoriya.
On the bright side, he managed to escape the sewer without getting caught by using sheer speed to find the exit. While he stunk, Todoroki was kind enough to show up with a few buckets of soapy water and a change of clothes. He even managed to find pants that accommodated the engines on his legs.
"Thanks," Tenya told him. "You didn't have to."
"You're my friend," Todoroki replied simply.
Together they watched as Todoroki turned Tenya's former outfit to cinders.
Together they wished that they were standing downwind of it.
~~O~~
Under Tenya's direction and with Shouto's aid, more attempts to bond Izuku and Tensei were made. Though none of them go quite the way he expected.
They stashed a huge number of Quirk analysis magazines at one of Yuuei's outdoor training areas. This had the predictable effect of drawing in Izuku and Tensei. Unfortunately, a wind started up, blowing them all over the place including directly into the wheels of Tensei's chair. There, they became entangled, hopelessly clogging its brakes.*
They attempted to make Tensei and Izuku sleuth together by loudly announcing that someone stole Shouto's precious soba from the dormitory kitchen. This ended after a minute when a vengefully helpful Bakugou pointed out that he'd seen Shouto remove it the previous day. This led to Shouto attempting to claim memory loss** to a deeply skeptical Tensei and Izuku.***
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*Unbeknownst to them, this led to Izuku picking up Tensei and his chair and taking them to the school's Support Department where they geeked out as Hatsume Mei not only fixed but upgraded the wheelchair.
**Unfortunately for Shouto when it came to acting, he was so wooden that you asked a lumberjack to choose between him and a tree. Shouto would have been a stump before you finished the question.
***Unbeknownst to them, this in turn, strongly reminded Tensei of the bizarre antics little Tenya used to get up to and thus sharing the stories with Izuku.
~~O~~
"I think we're going about this wrong," suggested Todoroki. "Midoriya dearly loves his mother. If we get her and Tensei interested in each other and they make each other happy, I am sure he would approve."
"As I said," Tenya said, "I already tried that. It didn't work."*
"Perhaps they should meet without the crying children?"
Tenya had to admit, crying children might be a touch of a mood killer.** "So what did you have in mind?"
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*It should be noted that while it was only a disaster in pairing up Tensei. Quite a large number of the parents that showed up ended up romantically entangled with each other and remain blissfully happy together to this day.
**As Tensei had reminded him at increasingly loud volumes while being swarmed by them.
~~O~~
Tensei was really going to have to talk with Tenya about appointments. It was 12:15 pm, he was waiting outside of the restaurant Tenya had told him to meet him, and there was no sign of him. Given his odd behaviour the last few weeks, he had been worrying that Toga Himiko had replaced him.*
A small woman with dark green hair approached him and said, "Would you be Tensei Iida, my son's teacher?"
"Yes. Yes, I am. How'd you recognize me?"
"I've met your brother. He looks just like you."
He examined her face and smiled. "And you'd be Midoriya's mother. You look just like him. Your hair's a bit flatter though."
Her face tightened and, self consciously, she took a lock and twirled it around her fingers. At this reaction, Tensei mentally reprimanded himself. Way to make her feel bad about herself.
"I know," she said. "He got those lovely curls and I've got this dull straight stuff."
"No, no! Not like that," Tensei insisted. "It's just a different kind of beauty. His is like fresh lamb's wool. Yours is like silk."
To his relief, her face relaxed and a slight blush coloured her cheeks. "That's very sweet of you."
They happily chatted for a few minutes more. It turned out to be quite the coincidence that they had met. Apparently this was her favourite restaurant and she always went at this time, and would Tensei and Tenya, whenever he showed up, want to join her—
Two people ran up to them one Darth Vader costume, and the other in a dress, shoes, sunglasses and hat covered in sunflowers.** Sunflower was attempting to grab Midoriya's mother's purse while Vader in a voice so low that one would need a mineshaft to find it told him not to interfere.
Tensei was not in the mood to oblige. He quite liked Midoriya-kun and here was someone assaulting his mother, a woman who seemed lovely in her own right. He might have been out of practice as a Hero, but he would be damned to not do anything. So smiling amiably at the thieves, he started to put his hands u—
A boom came from his right arm engine and a Recipro Burst-powered fist slammed up and into Vader's nose, cracking the plastic. This caused him and his wheelchair to spin, but experience and some practice with Midoriya-kun let him guess just the right time to slam on the brakes. He came to a screeching stop and another Recipro Burst causing him land another blow to Sunflower's own nose.
The thieves went flying and landed together in a heap. Midoriya-san with a deeply satisfied smile on her face used her Quirk to pull back her purse.
"You're not going after them?" Midoriya-san asked as the thieves, in an epic show of strength and determination, got up and managed to hobble off at good speed.
"Nah. I don't have any handcuffs or anything. Besides, I have tons of friends who work this area. I'll call them up."
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*These worries had been put to rest when he had watched Tenya give a rant on breakdown of social order due to j-walking.
**Shouto was finding he quite liked floral prints.
~~O~~
A number of things did not go to plan that day.
For one, instead of Tensei impressing Inko with his martial prowess and them going on to having a romantic dinner, by hitting the 'thieves' using Recipro Burst and not wearing his normal gauntlets, Tensei ended up badly spraining his wrists; thus, Inko ended up taking him to the local hospital.
They informed Izuku who turned up frantic and furious Izuku. After he calmed down, he first asked Tensei about any self defence courses his mother should take. Then once he heard about the sprained wrists and how the gauntlets would have prevented them, he and Tensei started planning to put Tensei's Support equipment guy in contact with Hatsume so Izku's own could be modified.
None of this was known to Shouto and Tenya. They had expected Tensei to retain some martial prowess, not enough to make their noses resemble balloon animals. They had also expected Tensei to be the one to chase them and not the ever increasing number of his Heroic friends that were tailing them.
~~O~~
Now that the bit was between his teeth, Shouto proved just as determined as Tenya when it came to achieving their goals. Having done thorough research via romantic movies and with Tenya assistance, Shouto bravely charged forward.
This had about the expected effect.
At a parent-conference Inko and Tensei were given two 'extra' bento boxes by Shouto that needed to be eaten immediately. The meals were so expensive and the ingredients so fancy that he strongly suggested they eat them somewhere private as to not make the other parents and teachers jealous. They did so only to find out that Tensei had an allergy to the expensive and fancy spice saffron.*
A series of pamphlets showed up on campus about the merits of dating older women. A furious Tensei spotted them and, thinking that they were put there by grown women trying to seduce his underage students, gleefully gave them to Thirteen to destroy.**
A flower situation went wrong when Inko got a bouquet from a secret admirer. This led to her discovering she was allergic to tulips and her sneezing so hard that as she disposed of them that she didn't even notice the card saying 'From Tensei'.***
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*The reaction was thankfully not too severe. But Inko had Izuku keep an eye on Tensei, while she went out and bought him cream for the hives.
**This led to Tensei, not wanting to embarrass his little brother, asking Izuku (who he did embarrass) for advice on the best way to talk to the kids about child predators.
***This led to Izuku talking to Tensei about his recently acquired skill regarding allergic reactions.
~~O~~
Eventually Shouto and Tenya came up with a plan that approached sanity. Despite Tenya's experience about mixing romance and children, they decided to put together one involving Tensei bonding with both Inko and Izuku at the same time.
~~O~~
As already stated, the Iida family minus Tenya's branch was a large family. They were also the sort of family that regularly kept in contact with third, fourth and fifth cousins. This side effect had its own side effect of making many family members extremely sick of family events.
As such when Tensei and Tenya's third-cousin-twice-removed's* wedding came up, their parents and grandmother were 'suddenly' called away on medical emergencies, Villain attacks, and other weddings involving people that the bride and groom had never heard of and would likely never would hear of again.
This meant that in addition to being allowed to bring a friend, Tenya was allowed to bring three additional people to the wedding. Thus he brought along Midoriya, his mother Inko, Todoroki and his mother Rei.
In Tenya's opinion the wedding was going well. Tensei had given a few flattering comments to Rei and Inko, causing them to giggle. As for Midoriya himself, Tensei gave him a large stack of books on offensive and defensive Quirk use.
Currently, they were at the reception and the place was alive with dance with one of the dancers being Todoroki's mother.
Rei had been out of the hospital for nearly six months and was in the final stages of her divorce. After some light coaxing from Tensei, Rei had quickly proved to be an excellent dancer. Something that utterly flummoxed Todoroki, who stared at her wide-eyed, as she, like a ribbon of silver caught by the wind, flowed around the clapping Tensei.
In an attempt to bring his stunned friend back to Earth, Midoriya talked to him and Iida about the contents of his newly acquired books. "There's really some good strategies in here," he loudly said, pushing one book into Todoroki's face. "There's a whole section on tacts for Paralytic Quirks. I am thinking that if I'd read this earlier, our stopping Stain would have been much easier."
His words were a bit too loud as they gathered the attention of Inko. "Fight? Against Stain?" she said, frowning. To make matters worse, the current piece of music had ended and she waved Tensei and Rei over.
"Stain was the Hero Killer, right Tensei?" she asked him.
"Yes. Why?"
"The boys were saying they stopped him."
"I thought Enji did that." Rei's eyes narrowed at the even more frozen Todoroki.
"That's what the papers reported," Tensei stated, voice turning cold as he observed his little brother.
More for preservation than matchmaking attempts, Tenya all but shoved Inko at Tensei, saying, "Tenseidancewithher! Itwouldbereallynice! Bye!" And grabbing his friends by the arms, ran out of the building, leaving only grape-scented fumes in his wake.
Todoroki was greatly thankful for the rescue. Midoriya was considerably less so. "You don't understand!" he said. "She's a bad dancer." And tried to zip back into the building.
Tenya understood being embarrassed by one's parents,** but this seemed an overreaction. And as a future Hero and Midoriya's future uncle, he felt that he had a duty to protect him from parental wrath*** and blocked him multiple times. It didn't work as eventually, Midoriya jumped over him and onto the top of the building then crashed in through a skylight.
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*Not the actual relationship. It has been simplified for readability and the author's sanity.
**Last time he brought a friend home, his parents had left two unwashed dishes in the sink.
***This of course has nothing to do with the fact that he was deathly afraid that Midoriya would squeal everything to the mothers and his big brother. Absolutely nothing. Zero. Nilch.
~~O~~
The thing was that Inko was not simply a 'bad' dancer.
To properly quantify her dancing abilities, one should write down the word 'bad' then look it up in a thesaurus and write down all the words next to it. Then look up those words and continue the process and so on and so on.
Essentially, she was the dancing equivalent of Shigaraki going around and shaking hands. Apparently friendly, welcoming. It was only after the excruciating pain settled, you realised what you had gotten into. Only she wasn't merciful enough to simply kill her victims.
Much like a deer might freeze confronted with a bear, worried that it made the wrong move, the bear would attack, the entire reception watched Inko's antics terrified that if they made the wrong move, she would invite them to join her.* They were the lucky ones. Their damage was purely psychological.
Not so for Tensei.
For better or for worse,** he hadn't lost all feeling in his legs. Thus, he felt Inko stepping on both of his feet with her extremely sharp high heels. He also could feel her continuing to step on his feet with the speed and repetition of a woodpecker.
Additionally, he proved highly flexible and managed to get Tensei in hands, elbows and various other locations. And on top of that, she was fairly fast and thus managed to get most of the other dancers before they were able to flee the floor.
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*With the exception of Rei who, with an expression much like her son, watched the entire affair with a quizzically interested air.
**Or in this case: for 'Please God! No!' or for worse.
~~O~~
There was nothing quite like having the police interrogate your mother for 'dangerous dancing'.*
"Was that her Quirk?" Tensei inquired of Izuku after recovering from his stunned stupor.
"No," Midoriya answered.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." Then Midoriya adds a considerably quieter voice, "I had her tested."
"Well, that was . . . that was . . . amazing! " A large smile spread onto Tensei's face.
"Uh sensei, are you sure she didn't get you in the head?" Midoriya asked, surreptitiously checking it for dents or pieces of red Anne Klein pumps.
"No, no, no. I'm— ow— mostly fine. It's just been a while since I've had that kind of excitement. I missed it."
Midoriya stared at him. He supposed 'exciting' could be used to describe his mother's dancing. "Missed it?"
"I haven't really been in the field for over a year now and chances are I'll never be again. Pretty good chances too." He sighed. "You ever thought what you would do if you had to stop?"
The boy shifted uneasily. "I always thought I'd keep it up."
"It doesn't always work that way. Most of us retire well before we're fifty. Some because they find different passions or want to focus on their kids. Sometimes because of permanent injury." He smiled ruefully. "Might be worth thinking about what else you want. Just in case."
The thoughts were uncomfortable for Izuku. Ever since he had received One For All, the Hero path was all he could see, a bright gold path that consumed his vision. To think of a time without, when he'd give it away like All Might before him, pushed him back to the days when all he could see was black.
He breathed out. He was older, stronger. He wouldn't let All Might down—wouldn't let himself down—by simply giving up. There were other ways to help. He had known that before but after all his experiences at Yuuei, he actually knew it. "Well, maybe designing support gear or maybe . . ." An interesting notion occurred to him. " Maybe, I could—"
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*Except for the other twenty-three times it had happened.
~~O~~
Knock, knock.
"Hello, have you seen my grandsons Iida Tensei and Tenya?"
"No."
Knock, knock.
"Hey you're Midoriya-kun, right? My sister-in-law's nephew's friend? Been wondering where he and Tensei are."
"I don't know."
Knock, knock.
"Oh, you'd be Izuku-chan! You're the bestie of my third-cousin-twice-removed-in-law and the student of my other third-cousin-twice-removed-in-law.* I was hoping you could tell me where they are."
"I haven't seen them."
Knock. Knock.
Izuku walked toward his bedroom door. The Iida family has taken over the school dormitories. All of them are searching for Tensei and Tenya. This would be the fourteenth relative to bother him the last half hour and frankly he was getting sick of it. So he built up the courage to give this one a piece of his mind, swung the door open, opened his mouth and—
At the sight of the small elderly man in his cape and blue mask, Izuku snapped his mouth shut.
"Have you seen that complete and utter dolt of a nephew of mine is?" grumbled Gran Torino..
"What . . ?" Izuku stuttered. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought it'd be obvious." In the dormitory hall, a small blue-haired girl clinging to the hand of her mother waved at the old man, who grunted in return. "So, have you seen that complete and utter dolt of a nephew of mine?"
"Which one?" asked Izuku while behind the door Tensei made frantic motions at him.
"Probably should check on 'em both, but first do you know where the supposed Stain-remover is?"
"Iida-kun . . . I mean Tenya? But you already knew about the Stain incident?"
"Uh huh, but my sister and brother-in-law didn't. They've been in a tizzy since they found out. So I got to have a little 'talk' with my nephew. Make sure he's up to snuff so if he ever does something that stupid again, he won't get himself killed, and I won't be hearing about it from the family for the rest of my life."
Izuku gulped. It sounded like Iida was in for an impromptu training session.
"Also where's the slightly bigger dolt?" Here Gran Torino bared his teeth in what could only generously be a smile. "I figured he could introduce me to all his colleagues."
At this, Tensei was so still that it reminded Izuku of the reception's reaction when faced with his mother's dancing. "Take the elevator three floors up," he said, desperately willing himself not to crack under the pressure of his mentor's gaze. "It leads to the teacher's lounge and quarters."
Giving him a smile that warned Izuku would later be tested to see if he was 'up to snuff', Gran Torino left.
Izuku gratefully sagged against the now closed door. "You're related to Gran Torino?" he said to Tensei.
"He's my mother's half-brother," Tensei explained.
"Is there any reason you're avoiding him?"
"The same reason I'm avoiding all the other ones. They're all here to rip Tenya a new one, but after that? They'll try to track me down then parade me around campus, sharing every single embarrassing story to the students and teachers. They've done it before. " Tensei shuddered. "And after that? I'll suddenly find out I have a few thousand dates scheduled. All of which I supposedly 'forgot' about."
"Oh."
"I'm just glad Tenya grew out of that. He used to be the worst of the lot."
"Do you think he'll be okay?"
Tensei quirked an eyebrow, thought about it and then said, "Tenya? He'll be fine. These days he's the sane and sensible of the two of us. So instead of doing ridiculous things like hiding like me, he'll just grit his teeth and bear it."
"But they haven't found him yet."
Tensei shrugged. "Chances are he's just in the bathroom or studying in the library."
Izuku wondered how long he'd be safe from them all. To have such a hoard of family members trying to track the Iida brothers down . . .
. . . Izuku loved his mother and he wouldn't trade her and the life they had together for anything. But sometimes he wondered what it would be like to be a part of a bigger family. Full of protective and embarrassing aunts and uncles. Siblings and cousins who he had grown up with. And to be related to a family with a Heroic legacy . . .
"What was it like having Gran Torino for an uncle?"
"He wasn't around a lot—he likes his privacy—but when he was, he could be . . . tricky. When Tenya was little and first got his Quirk, he wanted to run everywhere. We couldn't go anywhere without him in one of those baby harnesses. So one day, we're all at the park and Uncle's watching him and he asks me to hold the leash." The edge of his lip twitches.
"It turns out that he had been feeding Tenya orange juice for the last hour. Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem but I was wearing roller blades and . . . while Uncle isn't majorly social but when he is, he makes a splash. The entire family got the video of that incident."
Tensei chuckled. "But it wasn't all like that. He could be serious too. He's the one who got me into doing parkour as part of my moveset."
"Same here."
At this, a glint came into Tensei's dark blue eyes. It was something that Izuku recognized from his little brother when he got onto the subject of rules and properly colour-coded binders. But in Tensei, it meant an entirely different thing and he eagerly leaned forward.
"On that note," Tensei began. "I've been watching how you use your arms when you're doing Full Cowl and I had some ideas how you can make your turns tighter. I was thinking if you added a few more gymnastic rolls where you—"
.
.
*Greatly simplified because the author likes the use of her fingers, thank you very much.
~~O~~
Knock, knock.
"Hello, have you seen either Tensei or Tenya?"
"No . "
Knock, knock.
"Ah, you look like a nice young—"
"No."
Knock, knock.
"Aren't you the cutest—?"
Slam.
"Do you think your brother's avoiding them as well?" he asked Iida.
"No, my elder brother is utterly fearless," Iida announced proudly. Proud yes, but it lost something given the boast barely qualified as a whisper and the boaster was hiding behind Shouto's wardrobe. "If my relatives haven't found him yet, he's likely in the library or out."
"And on the subject of quarters . . . are you ever going back to yours?" It was now past 10 pm. As of now, no less than thirty people knocked, inquiring where the Iida brothers were. They had only stopped because it was getting later and apparently, a respect for rules like quiet hours was a familial trait.
Iida shuffled his feet, the motion causing the metal of his engines to loudly scrape together. Which in turn caused him to leap about a foot in the air then stare at the hallway door as if the Hounds of Hell rather than the Initiates of Iida were liable to break in.
When neither of the previous happened and Iida gave Shouto a puppyish expression.
Shouto considered the situation. Here was Iida's family trying to ruthlessly track him down. This standing by itself would have prompted him to help the speedster, but they weren't doing it because he had tarnished their reputations. They weren't doing it because if he had died, the family lineage would be damaged.
They were doing it because Iida's actions had endangered him.
They were doing it because they were terrified of losing him.
These days Shouto had his siblings and his mother fussing over him. Even his father had improved a touch. It was new to him and the very thought of having a family that had always done that for him made him want to. . .
. . . to kick Iida out the door and into the consequences of having such a wonderful family.
He nearly did, his hand grasping the door handle so hard that it audibly creaked. However . . .
Shouto was a veteran of his father's rages, but none of that prepared him for his mother's reaction to the Stain incident. After finding out the details, Rei had called up his father and yelled at him for a good hour for not telling her in the first place. Then once done, she had turned on her heel to pin Shouto in place with grey eyes so cold that he had thought icicles might start shooting out of them.
Then she had gone on to rip away his remaining defences with a calm, cool understanding tone that readily illustrated the utter agony he would be putting her and his siblings through if he had gotten himself killed.
. . . taking into account that memory and the apparent thousands of members of the Iida clan made Shouto take pity, internally shuddering at the concept.
As Shouto rooted through his drawers for an extra set of sheets, he realised there was another benefit to this situation: he had never had a sleepover before.
~~O~~
A new plan was made. The supplies purchased. All they needed was the targets.
So on their way out of the library, Tenya and Todroki pulled Midoriya aside.
"Hello, I have a stupendous event this weekend that you absolutely have to come to," Tenya said, pumping his first excitedly.
Midoriya shook his head. "Sorry, I can't. My father's in town. We're going to be spending the entire weekend together." His face became a picture of the joy, and he happily walked away, utterly oblivious to the consequence of his words.
~~O~~
"Midoriya . . . has a father?"
"Yes."
"Midoriya . . . has a father?"
"Yes."
"Midoriya . . . has a father?"
"It seems likely."
In the depths of the school library sat Iida Tenya. Upon being confronted with the fact that not only did Izuku have a father and one that he appeared to be on good terms with, Iida had gotten stuck in an error loop with his eyes being replaced by two Blue Screens of Death.
Shouto, a good friend, had brought him there and now was keeping him company.
"Midoriya has . . . a father?"
"Yes."
"Midoriya . . . has a father?"
" Yes ."
"Midoriya . . . has ACK!"
Shouto was a good friend. But not that good a friend as Iida's now frozen hair might attest.
Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick and instead of being stuck in a loop, Iida swan-dived his face onto a research table. "Okay, I give up," he moaned to the cedar wood. "I was an idiot for trying."
Sighing, Shouto gave him a hard stare then asked, "Why do you want your brother to have kids so much?"
"To fuss over them."
"Why?"
"To pay him back."
"What for?"
"For all the times he fussed over me."
"It couldn't have been that much."
There was an indignant squawk from Iida then and he extracted himself from his wooden pool and returned to land. Once there, he adjusted his glasses, glared at the Shouto for challenging him and told him about growing up with Tensei as an older brother.
Tensei had taught Tenya how to play sports and ride a bike. Bedtime stories had been done as often by Tensei as his parents. When Iida had been little and couldn't get the hang of his Quirk, Tensei, already a full-time Hero, had spent an hour every day helping him master it. When Iida had gone on his first date, Tensei had set him up with a suit and insisted on giving him money for the entire thing. And these were only a tiny fraction of the things Tensei had done for him.
Shouto remembered the lunch with Tensei and Midoriya months back. The man had shared embarrassing baby photos of his little brother, but the shining look on his face had made it clear that he adored him. And it was also clear to Shouto that the feeling was mutual.
"Apparently I was wrong." He bowed his head to Iida's still indignant look. "Anyone would be lucky to be his son . . . They would also be lucky to be your nephew."
Turning bright red, Iida waved his arms back and forth like a pair of windshield wipers at top speed. "No!" he squeaked. "I'm not . . . Being related to nii-san would be good but I'm . . . Thank you for the compliments however . . ." The frantic denials went on for a few minutes.
After Tenya came to a spluttering stop, Shouto raised a brow and said, "I think we may be thinking about Midoriya and Iida-sensei wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Midoriya already has other father figures than his biological one. All Might. Aizawa."
This predictably freaked Iida out. "You mean there's even more competition to be Midoriya's father?!"
"No. What I mean is . . . " And Shouto went on to explain.
~~O~~
Tenya resisted the urge to sag as his older brother packed up the last of his stuff from their classroom. Tensei was leaving and there was no sign of him and Inko—or him and Midoriya Hisashi—pairing off.
But Todoroki . . . He stopped and corrected himself.
Shouto was right; just because an official relationship won't be written down on a piece of paper somewhere didn't mean that Tensei couldn't be like a father to him or Tenya an uncle. Izuku certainly liked and admired Tensei and had been not so covertly asking him about potential internships at the Iidaten Hero Agency. As for All Might, Aizawa and Hisashi, there was no reason Izuku couldn't have more than one father figure.
Though now that he's calmed down a bit, Tenya has to admit, he didn't know if Tensei even wanted to be a father figure to Izuku. Every attempt he and Shouto had provided to have the two bond had met with disaster.
He didn't know if Tensei wanted to be a father period.
". . . quite the experience teaching here," Tensei told the class. "I enjoyed watching you grow as Heroes." Here he winked at Tenya and the youth resisted the urge to preen. "I also have something to say to your teacher."
From under the teacher's desk, Aizawa grumbled his way to wakefulness. "Yes?" he grunted.
Tensei smiled at him and calmly informed him, "Shouta, I'm stealing your kid."
"What?"
Aizawa had excellent reflexes but Tensei was built for speed and in less than a second, he grabbed Izuku, tucked him under an arm and was out of the classroom. By the time Aizawa had Quirk on and aimed at Tensei, the speedster was halfway down the hall and had more than enough momentum to ride it all the way out of the school.
Apparently, Tensei was a believer in surprise adoption.
~~O~~
After Tensei put the shaken Midoriya down and sent him on his way, Tenya joined him. Together they went on a run. Or rather, Iida ran and Tensei what . . ? Wheeled? Drove?
It was a bittersweet experience going around his old campus like this. He missed the feeling of the ground flying under his feet. However, the wheelchair was well-designed and it let him at least feel the thrill of speed. Something he had also thought lost to him forever.
"Tenya, you mind if I ask you a few questions?" he asked.
"Go for it."
"First, do you think Midoriya would be interested in interning with me? I know I'm not exactly . . . what I once was. But I thought for the street I could pair him with Zig and Zag, and I'd introduce him to the aspects of running a Hero agency."
His little brother said nothing to this for a very long time then, then like a sonic boom, he yelled, " Yes! Yes, he would!" And a huge smile covered his face.
And what a smile. It was the same one from when he had been a baby. Yeesh, Tensei was going to make him soppy if his little brother kept it up. Well, hopefully his reaction to his next question would be just as positive.
Crossing his fingers, Tensei continued. "Also I wanted to let you know that I'm seeing someone for a while. And she and I wanted to check with our loved ones before we got too serious. Especially because . . . she's, uh, the mother of one of your classmates and . . ."
Wow. That smile. You could use it for laser surgery—it was just that powerful.
~~O~~
A year and a half later and it turned out that Tenya was quite a good uncle.
He was fussing over Izuku and Shouto. Using their already established friendship to guilt them into taking better care of themselves and suss out any childhood skills that they were lacking. Both of them were learning to play catch and Shouto could now ride a bicycle.
Tenya's only flaw there was that he was not very good at the joking aspect of unclehood. As reorganizing books to be arranged by title instead of author didn't strike anyone as particularly funny,
Also, Tensei was proving to be a quite good father figure. Friendly, tough and enough of a team player that incorporating the two families was going as well as it could be.
Izuku was currently interning at the Iida Agency. He and Tensei were happily geeking out on a regular basis. So much so that the sidekicks regularly escorted them to opposite corners so some actual work got done.
As for the wedding, things had been lovely. Tensei had had Tenya and Izuku as groomsmen. Shouto had helped by showing a surprising interest and skill in flower arrangement. There had been some concerns about the wedding considering the number Heroes and Hero students that had been present. Thankfully, the only plot against them ended when the Villains involved somehow managed to set their own hideout on fire (with them inside it). So that had sorted itself out.
Also, Iida Shouto has a nice ring to it.